As The End Draws Near
by Fancy0122
Summary: As Laura reaches the end of her journey, she and Bill discuss their lives and love over the last few years and finally find a way to say goodbye.... for now...
1. Chapter 1

HI there everyone. It's been a LOOOOONG time since I've written any fanfiction. My last great shipper tales revolved around Sam and Jack from Stargate SG-1. I have since been totally sucked in by the president and her admiral. So forgive me if I makes some consistency mistakes, I've gotten into BSG a little late and have since backtracked and am up to speed….. So here's a little bit kind of picking up where the last episode left off. Enjoy. Feedback, both critical and positive is greatly apprecitated.

Christine….

She awoke with a start. Something was wrong. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was something big. As she started to lift her head from the desk, she noticed she was drenched in sweat. She almost felt like she was in a trance, she knew where she was, but nothing around her fazed her. Then it hit her: Hera. Something was wrong with Hera. But the fog that surrounded her mind just wouldn't clear. Why would she know something was wrong with Athena's daughter? She has always had a connection to the child, ever since her blood helped save Laura from dying the first time she had cancer. But today, the connection was more… today there was a seemingly physical reaction to Hera being in trouble. She moved to stand, unsteadily, and stopped in the middle of Bill's quarters. She clenched her hands over her heart, the room starting to spin around her, and then she heard it, a loud explosion and the ripping apart of metal. And in that instant she knew exactly what happened, "Hera," she gasped. She closed her eyes and let the blackness envelope her. She dropped to her knees and collapsed onto the floor, oblivious to the debris falling around her.

In a moment, her guards were at her side, calling for the medics. As they rushed her to the infirmary one of the guards called out, "Get the Admiral on the con, he needs to get to sickbay now!" And as the he watched them whisk her away, he mouthed a silent prayer that the president would be ok.

The CIC seemed to be falling apart around Adama and Tigh. The crew there held their breath and waited for something, anything to happen. This was the worst thing that could have happened and the worst time for it to happen. They couldn't jump for fear of implosion, and now with a huge gash in her side, would Galactica crinkle like a tin can or could she take just one more injury before giving in. They sat and waited in silence, holding their breath. But Galactica was still here, and still together, and before long, Adama and Tigh were setting about sending out teams to assess and start repairs. Just as the Admiral was going to go inspect the damage a crewman stopped him. "Sir, just got word from sickbay, the president has collapsed and was rushed there about ten minutes ago. Doc Cottle wants you there as soon as you can."

Bill Adama stopped in his tracks. "Gods no." His heart sank and his stare fell to the floor. Saul came up to him, seeing the look on his old friend's face.

"Bill, what's wrong?" asked Saul.

"The president's collapsed. She's in sickbay." Responded Bill, Saul could see he was torn between his duty and the woman he loved.

"Go to her Bill." Said Saul, "I can handle it here, at least for now. She needs you more."

The Admiral took a deep breath and let it out, surveying the damage to the CIC around him, then nodded his head, "Ok, I'll be back soon." He turned to leave and then stopped, "Saul?"

"Yeah?" said Saul turning to face his friend.

"Thanks."

Ok, that ends the first part……. Do we want more????? Let me know


	2. Chapter 2

She was in the opera house again, chasing Hera, trying desperately to get to her before 6 did, at least that's what she thought. This vision hadn't changed during the many times she experienced it. Suddenly the vision took another turn. This time it was different. She could feel it. She was standing at the balcony again, and met Athena's stare from her perch across the theatre. And then she heard Hera, running and laughing. They both turned to see her running up towards the stage and straight into Boomer's arms. Laura and Athena exchanged horrified glances, immediately calling out to Hera and running down the theatre steps as fast as they could. But they were too late. Boomer scooped up Hera and ran for the door, knocking down Baltar and Six in the process. As Athena and Laura reached the door an explosion and a child's cry knocked them back and then the vision just stopped.

Laura woke with a start, trying desperately to grasp consciousness. She hadn't realized she had screamed. Doc Cottle came rushing into her bay and waited for the fog to clear from her head. "Hey there Madame President, welcome back to the living."

"Hera's dead," was all she could muster, "Hera's dead, isn't she?"

"You don't need to worry yourself about Hera right now," said Cottle, trying to change the subject.

"Just tell me!" she demanded, her voice shaking with emotion as she tried to sit up, "Tell me!"

"Okay, okay," said Cottle, "Damn it Laura, lay down, you're in no condition to try and get up." She looked at him, her eyes throwing daggers his way. He sighed, "We don't know if she's dead, ok? There, happy? Now lay down. Bill is on his way."

She lay back down on the bed, her eyes stinging with tears, "Who took her? she asked, as Cottle checked her vitals.

"I don't know. Did you know anything about this?" he asked, " Did Bill tell you what was going on? The stress could definitely have contributed to your collapse."

"Collapse?" Laura thought back for a moment, "I…I was in Bill's quarters. I was asleep. I just woke up, and I didn't know why….."

"Okay, okay, look let's save the explanation for when Bill gets here, I don't want you overexerting yourself and getting upset twice."

"Doc!?" yelled Bill as he walked into the infirmiry, "Doc!?"

"In here Bill." Bill pulled back the curtain and was taken aback by Laura's appearance. She was lying in bed, her head wrapped in a scarf and she looked so frail. He knew she was getting weaker, but Laura was doing her best to hide it from him. Her efforts were in vain though, he could see right through her. Right now she looked like she had been through the worst day of her life, and for the first time she really 'looked' like a cancer patient. She 'looked' like she was dying. The reality of losing her hitting him square in the stomach. A thought suddenly hit him, 'if we were Cylons, there would have been a time we could've lived forever'. 'Gods Bill' he thought, 'get a grip' He mentally shook the thoughts off and took her hand, kissing it lightly.

"What happened? Is she alright?" he asked sitting down next to her, his hand in hers, and he looked to Cottle for an answer.

"I'm not quite sure what happened." He scratched his head, "She was totally drenched in sweat and running a high fever, and she's wiped out. With the stage the cancer's in now the fatigue's to be expected. But the high fever? We're gonna run some tests. Right now the fever's still there though its not as high. She's just lucky she didn't hit her head on the way down. Look, she needs to rest, and right now, all she can talk about is Helo's kid." He shook his head and addressed Laura, "Tell him what you need to and then rest. No complaining, just rest. For once listen to me."

Bill nodded to him, "I'll make sure she does. Can I take her home or does she need to stay here? There's a lot of repairs that need to happen and if she's in my quarters I can still keep tabs on the repairs while I keep an eye on our president."

"I was gonna keep her overnight, but the stuff that's wrong with her she already knows about and I wanna keep her out of this hospital bed as long as possible. So once I run the tests, go ahead, but make sure she rests."

Bill nodded, and turned back to Laura, who was looking away from Bill, tears streaming down her face, "Tell me about Hera."

Laura never even looked at him, she told him everything about where she was by the way she responded to his question, "Dead. Hera's dead."

Bill looked down at his hands, and Laura turned to look at him, "You know she's gone don't you?"

He looked up to meet her gaze, "Yeah, Boomer took her. But Laura there's no evidence that says she's dead. Ellen and her gang think the other Cylon group captured her so they could figure her out."

"I know. I know, it's just… I could feel something. It felt like she was going to die and I was going to die with her." She closed her eyes and sighed, "How could I know it, Bill? How the hell? How can I have this connection to Hera and the opera house and…" She was stopped by another rush of tears. "What's going on? If all of this with me and the visions and Pythia and all is just frakking bull then why am I still having things like this happen to me? I need to know what's going on!" She was insistent in finding answers, and he knew it. But not now, now she had to rest. "Help me find out?"

He leaned over and kissed her forehead, "You know I will." He brushed his hand along her cheek, still so warm, "Do you know how much you scared me tonight?"

She reached up and stroked his cheek, "I know, I'm sorry. It's enough to have to know that I'm going to die sooner rather than later. It must have been awful to get the call I was here." She took her hand in his and started tracing small circles on the back of his hand, "I've been trying so hard to ignore what my body is going through." He nodded, "Trying to hide it from you…. You have so much on your plate with Galactica. I didn't want you to worry about me. I guess I haven't been doing a good job huh?"

Bill smiled, "Let's just say you shouldn't give up your day job, at least not around me. Look, if there's something I've learned over the past few years with you, Laura, it's that I need to pick and choose my battles. Telling you not to hide how you were doing from me despite this situation with the old girl wasn't gonna stop you from doing it anyway. I knew this was one fight I wasn't going to win."

She laughed, wiping tears from her cheeks, "I guess I'm not a good actress then."

Bill shook his head and rested a hand on her forehead. She seemed to be doing better, at least she wasn't getting warmer. "Look, every time you hurt I could see it. I know when you're feeling like crap and when you're not. I also know that you're worried about me worrying about you. So I didn't say anything. I didn't want to push."

She let her head fall, trying to mask the tears, "Thank you," she whispered, "I don't know why it took so long for me to admit I was in love with you. I'm so lucky to have you." She looked up at him, taking both his hands in hers, "You have to know I didn't stop the Diloxan treatments so I would die sooner. I didn't stop them because I didn't want to spend as much time with you as I could."

Bill nodded, "I know…."

"Let me finish, Bill, I need you to understand." She took a deep breath, "I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't deal with the side effects anymore. I told myself I would do it for as long as it took to get this family to earth, and when it happened I told myself I would do it for you. I would do it so I could spend as much time as I could with you." She looked at him, her eyes threatening to spill with tears, her voice breaking with emotion, "But I couldn't do it Bill. I couldn't do it." She shook her head, "I thought I could do it for you, I thought I was strong enough but I'm not." She wiped a tear from her cheek, "I didn't want to spend what time I had left with you sitting in bed, throwing up and tired all the time." She cupped his face in her hand, "I wanted our remaining time together to be wonderful, and romantic, and sexy, and fun." He nodded, a tear spilling down his cheek, "I wanted to just be Bill and Laura, for as long as we could be. Do you understand Bill? Please, don't be angry with me."

Bill got up and sat at the edge of the bed. He wiped away her tears and kissed her gently on the forehead, "I'm not angry with you. I get it. I've always gotten it. No matter what I want Laura, this is your life. You call the shots. No one should make you feel bad for how you decide to live your life, no matter how much of it is left. I'm glad we're both here today, and I will pray there will be tomorrow." He sighed, "I know I'm gonna lose you….." he took a deep breath as tears spilled down his cheeks, "But I'm gonna try to take every day, every day and hold it tight and fill it with as much Bill and Laura as I can." He took her in his arms, and they sat there for a long time, just enjoying the feeling of their warm embrace. This moment couldn't be snatched from them, and they would take every single moment they could and relish it, until there were no more…until they had to say goodbye…. And then, they knew it would only be for a while, because somehow, some way there was still so much life for them to live, and so much love for them to give, that there was no way this life was the end.


End file.
